A visitor to Friday afternoon’s Measure Y fundraiser at Joxer Daly’s Irish Pub busily was polling an out-the-door hometown crowd on the half-cent sales tax increase, and the and touring the noisy pub was unremarkable only until it was Ed Wolkowitz’s turn.
The sometimes-salty former mayor’s reputation as just about the best interview in town a decade after leaving elected office remains as safe as a rusty penny in the far corner of an outsized vault.
“I have very mixed emotions about Measure Y,” Mr. Wolkowitz began.
“On the one hand, I always have been opposed to regressive taxes. And I believe the sales tax, in general, is a regressive tax.
“On the other hand, I think that local government has been seriously screwed by Sacramento. The only mechanism for generating revenue at the local level is sales tax, in reality.
“Sales tax funds 70 percent of the city’s General Fund. So if you have Sacramento eliminating Redevelopment Agencies, and basically leaving us with no alternative and an $8 million gap in our budget, we really have no option.
“And that,” said Mr. Wolkowitz, “is why I am here this afternoon.”
Profitable Day
Mayor Andy Weissman, one of the busiest and most visible advocates for the 10-year proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot, reported that nearly $4,000 was raised at City Councilman Mehaul O’Leary’s pub.
“That far exceeded our modest expectations,” he said.
Six weeks before Election Day, the mayor said that the Measure Y campaign will accelerate to its peak on Saturday, Oct. 13, a hundred or more supporters will fan out across the community, prepared to distribute thousands of pieces of literature.
(To be continued)
